


Migraine (Whumptober 2020)

by twofrontteethstillcrooked



Series: Whumptober [6]
Category: Black Sails
Genre: M/M, snippetfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-21
Updated: 2020-10-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:53:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twofrontteethstillcrooked/pseuds/twofrontteethstillcrooked
Relationships: Captain Flint | James McGraw/John Silver
Series: Whumptober [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1975861
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	Migraine (Whumptober 2020)

The ship’s creaking crept around like the steps of some slow dance drunken sailors might attempt late at night, far into their cups. For his part, Silver had given up trying to be sneaky. He thumped into the cabin, using the counter-rhythm of the way the ship rocked to move over to the pallet beneath the long window. For a minute, he just watched Flint’s chest rise and fall, almost but not quite in time with the swaying of the ship.

“Is there a message?” Flint whispered in a guttural way. He kept his eyes tightly shut.

Silver sat awkwardly beside him, using his crutch as a prop against a floorboard he tested to make sure wasn’t squeaky. “Your absence has been noted.”

“What, pray tell, seems to be the trouble?”

“There is much grumbling about the current division of labor. Two rounds of fisticuffs already this morning about the swabbing and the running rigging inspections, as well as some sort of misunderstanding about who would be taking the forenoon watch–”

“Tell Billy to do it.”

“Ah, but Billy is better served elsewhere–”

Flint opened his eyes, immediately narrowed them, and pinned Silver with a look of barely banked rage. “Do I have to come do everything? Are you not capable of even the simplest–” He cut himself off with a grimace and squeezed his eyes shut again.

The annoyance that flashed through Silver evaporated as quickly as it arrived, replaced by another emotion much more difficult to name. He touched two fingers to the furrow between Flint’s eyes. “Are you in pain?” he asked quietly.

Flint took a deep breath and let it out before opening his eyes halfway. He raised a hand and waved it vaguely around. “There is a halo around your hair. Makes you look almost angelic, which is how I know my affliction must be as if from Satan itself." 

In his voice was some sort of apologetic note. The grimace had not entirely resolved itself.

"It’s likely you’ve been cursed by, oh, who can say. A seawitch, perhaps? A thwarted siren. Syclla’s song luring you to your doom. Or maybe the brined beef has gone off again.” Silver refused to examine why, for all that was holy, he had laid a hand upon Flint’s chest.

“Hmm.” Flint laid his hand atop Silver’s. 

“Last night didn't…” Silver had no idea how to end that sentence with any discretion. “You are not suffering from lack of sleep.”

They had slept rather soundly, he’d thought, once they’d worn each other out. There were fingertip-shaped bruises on his hips. When dressing earlier he had run his own fingertips over them and the faint bite-mark on his inner thigh, feeling literally nothing he had experienced in years, his breath coming fast for a moment as though he’d been chased, and caught, in a great pursuit. He’d pulled on his trousers and loose top and left the room as quickly as his bad leg would let him. Only the bright piercing sunlight on deck had shaken the heat of Flint’s body from his thoughts.

“This happens sometimes,” Flint murmured. “These…visions. My head feels…unpleasant. It will end soon.”

Silver let a moment pass. “If you’re sure you don’t need me to stay." 

"Go on, then,” Flint said. He pressed the pad of his thumb to Silver’s lower lip, just for a second.

The warmth of the touch lingered as Silver made his way back to the deck. He only just kept from rubbing the sensation from his mouth. Billy would not be pleased at the assignment Silver was about to order. Silver could not find it within himself to care.


End file.
